— Pierre TrudeauContext: There is no such thing as a model or ideal Canadian. What could be more absurd than the concept of an "all Canadian" boy or girl? A society which emphasizes uniformity is one which creates intolerance and hate.
Speech to the Ukrainian - Canadian Congress, Winnipeg, Manitoba (9 October 1971)

— Pierre TrudeauContext: A country, after all, is not something you build as the pharaohs built the pyramids, and then leave standing there to defy eternity. A country is something that is built every day out of certain basic shared values.
Part 5, Life After Politics, p. 366

— Pierre TrudeauContext: The attainment of a just society is the cherished hope of civilized men. While perhaps more difficult to formulate for groups than for individuals, even the members of majorities — political, religious, linguistic or economic — must know what it is to suffer injustice. My Government is deeply concerned to provide and to ensure increased justice, dignity and recognition to the individual, particularly in an age which is characterized by large governments, industrial automation, social regimentation and old-fashioned laws. A great deal has been accomplished in recent years to make the Canadian society more just in terms of income distribution and security against the vicissitudes of life.
Speech from the Throne, House of Commons (12 September 1968)

— Pierre TrudeauContext: When I had been appointed to the Cabinet in 1967, I had been struck by the amateurism that reigned in the upper echelons of the federal government.
Part 2, 1968 - 1974 Power And Responsibility, p. 107

— Pierre TrudeauContext: What sets a canoeing expedition apart is that it purifies you more rapidly and inescapably than any other. Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute; pedal five hundred on a bicycle and you remain basically a bourgeois; paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of nature.
"Exhaustion and Fulfillment : The Ascetic in a Canoe" (1944) http://www.canoe.ca/che-mun/102trudeau.html <!-- republished in Trudeau: PM, Patriot, Paddler -->

— Pierre TrudeauContext: Some things I never learned to like. I didn't like to kiss babies, though I didn't mind kissing their mothers. I didn't like to slap backs or other parts of the anatomy. I liked hecklers, because they brought my speeches alive. I liked supporters, because they looked happy. And I really enjoyed mingling with people, if there wasn't too much of it.
Part 3, 1974 - 1979 Victory And Defeat, p. 178

— Pierre TrudeauContext: The Jesuits were good educators, exceptional teachers. In an era and in a society where freedom of speech was not held in high regard, of course, that the discourse be focused on what they were teaching, but we were able to go beyond this framework without incurring too great a risk.
Part 1, 1919 - 1968 The Road to 24 Sussex Drive, p. 21

— Pierre TrudeauContext: What is considered sinful in one of the great religions to which citizens belong isn't necessarily sinful in the others. Criminal law therefore cannot be based on the notion of sin; it is crimes that it must define.
Part 1, 1919 - 1968 The Road to 24 Sussex Drive, p. 83

— Pierre TrudeauContext: A man who tries to please all men by weakening his position or compromising his beliefs, in the end has neither position nor beliefs. A man must say what he believes clearly, without dogma, and without guile.
Statement during the 1968 election campaign, as quoted in party literature. "Pierre Elliott Trudeau for Canada", 1968 leaflet http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau-for-Canada-1968-Leaflet-Bill-Vander-Zalm-Liberal-Party-BC/322004097304?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131017132637%26meid%3D9020a37aa0b24dd68f1d3f5025b50b52%26pid%3D100033%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D381542319016

— Pierre TrudeauContext: Bilingualism is not an imposition on the citizens. The citizens can go on speaking one language or six languages, or no languages if they so choose. Bilingualism is an imposition on the state and not the citizens.
Statement to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, as quoted in Problems of Journalism (1966) by the American Society of Newspaper Editors
Unsourced variant : "Bilingualism is not an imposition on the citizens — it is an imposition on the state."

— Pierre TrudeauContext: We must now establish the basic principles, the basic values and beliefs which hold us together as Canadians so that beyond our regional loyalties there is a way of life and a system of values which make us proud of the country that has given us such freedom and such immeasurable joy.
This quote from 1981 appears on the poster of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1981)

— Pierre TrudeauContext: Well, I am trying to put Quebec in its place — and the place of Quebec is in Canada, nowhere else.
Speech on the Quebec separatist movement (25 June 1968), exact quote take from footage as seen in "Pierre Elliott Trudeau Memoirs" (27 Jan 2009), Disk 2, 24:05; only the bolded portion has usually been quoted in print, as quoted in Winnipeg Free Press (25 June 1968), and in "Flamboyant former Canadian leader Pierre Trudeau dies" at CNN (28 September 2000) https://listserv.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/wa?A2=parkinsn;RzFzCg;20000929032301%2B0200d

— Pierre TrudeauContext: Bilingualism is not an imposition on the citizens. The citizens can go on speaking one language or six languages, or no languages if they so choose. Bilingualism is an imposition on the state and not the citizens.
Statement to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, as quoted in Problems of Journalism (1966) by the American Society of Newspaper Editors
Unsourced variant : "Bilingualism is not an imposition on the citizens — it is an imposition on the state."